A Canadian animated movie with Owen Wilson voices a dog who gains flight and speech after alien experimentation. The dog, Charlie, returns home and decides to use his superpowers for good, becoming a “Bark Kent” figure. The story includes a strong anti-cat element, with a neighbor’s cat, Puddy, breaking bad and threatening punishment for failing to empty his litter tray. The film centers on Charlie and Puddy as contrasting reactions to sentience humans assume. A potentially solid, funny idea is weakened by rapid, frenetic action sequences that move quickly without lasting impact. The humor leans on exaggerated canine antics and Wilson’s recognizable delivery.
"A Canadian digimation, featuring the voice of Owen Wilson as a dog with superpowers, serves as a family alternative amid a thin release schedule. The titular pooch is one of a menagerie of household pets beamed up one night for alien experimentation. Returned home with the ability to fly and speak in a recognisably Wilsonian drawl, Charlie resolves to use his superpowers for good becoming, if you will, Bark Kent. (This PG-rated entertainment comes perilously close to busting out the probes.)"
"This indulges in more of the movies' virulent anti-cat propaganda: neighbour's puss Puddy (Ruairi MacDonald) breaks bad, pledging to punish his now-cowering owner, and indeed humanity entire, for failing to empty his litter tray. If you can forget the legacies of Pixar and DreamWorks Animation, Charlie might seem passable. Wageman is presumably hoping his audience hasn't encountered 2009's Bolt, where Disney did something similar with greater pizzazz."
"This script has one solid, funny idea that Charlie and Puddy represent differing responses to the sentience we humans take for granted but it gets squandered amid the usual frenetic set pieces, which zip into the eyes and immediately exit via the ears. For Wilson, who summons the howls of a canine with cacti spines in his butt and a loud belch after Charlie overdoes it with his beloved bolognese, this was doubtless an easy paycheque and a way of killing time in the wilderness"
Read at www.theguardian.com
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